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I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

Conventional wisdom After locking up the key players from last season's spunky run, the Pacers are poised to fill the gap at the top of the Eastern Conference caused by Derrick Rose's injury.

Actual wisdom Last season's starting five was dominant. Know what else it was? Improbably healthy. Paul George, David West, Granger, Darren Collison and Roy Hibbert played 1,000 minutes together -- or 253 more than any other five NBA teammates spent as a unit. Hope they all took it easy this summer. Indiana did little to overhaul its weak bench, so the starters will have to work overtime again. Counting on a repeat of a statistical anomaly is no way to game-plan. -- Beckley Mason
Basketball Prospectus predictions
Projected record: 44.4-37.6
If Granger scores 25.8 ppg: 51-31 (2-seed)
If Granger scores 18.7 ppg: 46-36 (7-seed)

The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Trader Joe For This Useful Post:

Re: I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

What's more absurd is that his main reason for the Pacers being eighth is that he thinks that they'll be crippled by injuries this year (which apparently he knows for a fact) because they "did little to overhaul their weak bench". A one-two punch of idiocy.

Re: I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

I cancelled my ESPN magazine subscription after reading this nobody's garbage when I feel like I know more than he does and probably most people at ESPN.

Where they find these "sports" writers I do not know.

We were discussing this in another thread. I also cancelled my mag/insider after seeing this. ESPN will do anything for clicks. At this point they are just trolling their readers. I honestly can barely stand to watch sportscenter any more.

The Following User Says Thank You to HickeyS2000 For This Useful Post:

Re: I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

Yea, I saw that preview, and it was just stupid.

First of all, New York is SO overrated. Melo and Amare are a bad fit offensively, and have no interest playing defense. They, along with Felton, will get their stats..but they aren't winning nearly as often as people think they are going to.

Then he has Chicago/Brooklyn ahead of the Pacers? Really. Look, if the Pacers have a bad year, I can see a situation where maybe two out of the Sixers/Haws/Celtics beat the Pacers in standing. But a Chicago team with no Rose, and freaking Brooklyn?

The worst part of it was the excuse they used. That the Pacers were as good as they were because they were healthy. Um, I think that applies to any team. If Miami loses Wade or Lebron, they will not be #1, the reason the Bulls are ranked as low as they are..is because they lost Rose. If anything, the Pacers are in a better position to handle the loss of a player, because of the depth of the team.

Just a silly prediction. And I have a feeling it comes more from the fact that ESPN doesn't want Indiana to be good (they don't want to talk about a small market team with no stars) rather than actually an educated opinion.

Re: I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

If Granger has to score 26ppg, I'd say the Pacers are in trouble. Only way Granger averages that is if he gets his shooting % well about 45% and 40% on 3s, and gets to the FT line like he has in year's past. I'd say 18-20ppg is what you can expect. You'd have to think that Hibbert, West (wasn't fully healthy till about the end of the year) and PG should see their averages increase. Something has to give.

I would love it if Granger shot above 45% and 40% on 3.

First time in a long time, I've been happy with the team that was constructed, and now they struggle. I blame the coach.

Re: I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

First of all, New York is SO overrated. Melo and Amare are a bad fit offensively, and have no interest playing defense. They, along with Felton, will get their stats..but they aren't winning nearly as often as people think they are going to.

Then he has Chicago/Brooklyn ahead of the Pacers? Really. Look, if the Pacers have a bad year, I can see a situation where maybe two out of the Sixers/Haws/Celtics beat the Pacers in standing. But a Chicago team with no Rose, and freaking Brooklyn?

The worst part of it was the excuse they used. That the Pacers were as good as they were because they were healthy. Um, I think that applies to any team. If Miami loses Wade or Lebron, they will not be #1, the reason the Bulls are ranked as low as they are..is because they lost Rose. If anything, the Pacers are in a better position to handle the loss of a player, because of the depth of the team.

Just a silly prediction. And I have a feeling it comes more from the fact that ESPN doesn't want Indiana to be good (they don't want to talk about a small market team with no stars) rather than actually an educated opinion.

ESPN: Where entertainment comes before sports. They've literally made that their top priority in everything they do.

The Following User Says Thank You to HickeyS2000 For This Useful Post:

Re: I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

read a hoopsworld article today and Kevin P made the point I was trying to make at the PD party about DG. He was asked to do too much as a young player because we had no talent on the team so we didnt see his complete game.

Our best case scenario is DG at around 14-18ppg and doing it efficiently(which like I said hopefully he can learn to do with better shot selection but year 2 should be better than year 1 in that department IMO). While playing the defense he couldn't play when we were forced to have Danny be the main option and really only option.

The way Pritchard sees it, Granger was forced to play a role he was not naturally fit for when the Pacers made him their focal point. “Danny was put into a position a few years ago where he needed to score a lot and now we don’t need his scoring as much, we need his overall game and he’s a heck of an overall player,” Pritchard said. “That’s what we need out of Danny and he gives it. He’s shown to be very unselfish, he’s given up a lot of his offense to be a better defensive player last year. We got the fifth-best record in the league last year, you don’t just say, “We don’t need him.” That’s a bunch of baloney. I don’t believe that.”

Re: I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

Uh, I guess changing 4 out of 5 regular bench players amounts to "did little"...and here I thought we are better than last year because of our bench. Stupid me.

I'd say the bench was overhauled and now it's better. Green should be a 6th man canditate and Ian is bigger and better than the tiny scrapper we had last season. It's debatable on whether Augustin is worse than DC, but if you look at team needs alone, then Augustin makes much more sense than DC. Just need Hans to have a bounce back season and for Lance to start to become the player most of us know that he can become.

I'd like to know which teams have a better bench than the Pacers. I can't believe how at the beginning of the year people were saying the Pacers bench was deep. Outside of Hill, I didn't really like anyone, and now Hill is the starter.

Re: I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

I don't really get the hate over this guy, especially after he said he has us ranked 3/4 and not 8th. I wouldn't expect people to get as excited over Green and Mahinmi as we are unless they watched the Pacers enough to see just how god awful our bench was. The general view is that we were already "deep" remember?

Re: I don't know who Beckley Mason is, but...

wait we are only going to be good if Danny averaged 26ppg? Hmmm I think that would actually be a detriment to the team. That means we are still far too reliant on Danny, rather than playing to our strength as a 5 man unit.